Communication in Critical Care Environments: Mobile Telephones Improve Patient Care

Abstract

Most hospital policies prohibiting the use of wireless devices cite reports of disruption of medical equipment by cellular telephones. There have been no studies to determine whether mobile telephones may have a beneficial impact on safety. At the 2003 meeting of the American Society of Anesthesiologists 7878 surveys were distributed to attendees. The five-question survey polled anesthesiologists regarding modes of communication used in the operating room/intensive care unit and experience with communications delays and medical errors. Survey reliability was verified using test-retest analysis and proportion agreement in a convenience sample of 17 anesthesiologists. Four-thousand-eighteen responses were received. The test-retest reliability of the survey instrument was excellent (Kappa = 0.75; 95% confidence interval, 0.56-0.94). Sixty-five percent of surveyed anesthesiologists reported using pagers as their primary mode of communications, whereas only 17% used cellular telephones. Forty-five percent of respondents who use pagers reported delays in communications compared with 31% of cellular telephone users. Cellular telephone use by anesthesiologists is associated with a reduction in the risk of medical error or injury resulting from communication delay (relative risk = 0.78; 95% confidence interval, 0.6234-0.9649). The small risks of electromagnetic interference between mobile telephones and medical devices should be weighed against the potential benefits of improved communication.

The use of smartphones for clinical communication on internal medicine wards

“…Our study is consistent with the previous studies have documented physicians' perceptions of improved performance with mobile phones. 7,17 …”

“…2 Traditional paging remains the primary method to contact a physician despite being disruptive, inefficient, and predisposing to errors. [7][8][9][10] The identification of the responsible physician for a patient can also be complicated with the numerous call schedules, different coverage rules, vacations, and protected academic time for residents. In 1 observational study, 25% of calls in a hospital were attempts to identify a responsible individual for a specific role.…”

Mobile Phones — Ban or Boon?

“…This assumes clinical significance in critical areas of the hospital where fears of patient safety make banning the use of mobile phones appear logical. However, 'clinically relevant EMF' has not been defined [1,2]. The problem was further compounded by the non-uniformity in the reporting of the mal functionings.…”

“…EMI does not completely disappear on placing the mobile phones on stand by modes and is more with those phones which are incompatible with medical equipments [2]. Most phones operate on the Global Systems Mobile (GSM) network where two frequency bands are allocated, one at 900 MHz and one at 1800 MHz.…”

“…This has the potential to allow visitors to take inappropriate photographs and videos, thereby affecting patient dignity and privacy. Also, loud ring tones or music played on these phones often disturb critically ill patients and the constant chatter may be disruptive to other patients [2].…”